Andrew Dubber     

December 18, 2009 – 1:25 am

I’ve been asked by a few people – but I’ve actually been putting off making any lists, because choosing the ‘best’ albums of a decade is pretty much meaningless – and an incredibly stressful task. You’re bound to have forgotten somebody’s favourite – or simply not heard something truly magnificent.

How can you possibly hope to make a useful list of ‘best albums’ of the year – let alone a decade?

But then I thought that what I could do is simply list the albums I keep going back to again and again. It’s as good a measure as any other – and so for whatever reason, these are the records from the past ten years I’ve listened to more than any others.

Stress-free end of decade list-making
This was not a difficult list to make. There have genuinely been ten albums that I just seem to return to over and over. No other albums even come close. Only one’s a jazz record – and a pretty accessible one at that. Fifty percent of them are by New Zealand artists, so you can imagine I’m pretty pleased about that.

They are in no particular order, except that the top three stand in a league of their own. I have played these records to death, never get tired of them, and love them with an abiding passion. But – all ten of these albums have far outstripped any other records that have been on my iPod, turntable, CD player (back when I still had one) and laptop between January 2000 and December 2009.

No point me going into too much detail on any of these. Click on the links below to go check them out.

The Overflow – Humphreys and Keen
[LINK - Bandcamp]

Every Day – The Cinematic Orchestra
[LINK - Amazon]

Illinois – Sufjan Stephens
[LINK - Amazon]

Hebron Gate – Groundation
[LINK - Amazon]

Based on a True Story – Fat Freddy’s Drop
[LINK - Amazon]

The Mouse and the Mask – Danger Doom
[LINK - Amazon]

Nux Vomica – The Veils
[LINK - Amazon]

Southern Lights – SJD
[LINK - Bandcamp]

You’ve Got To Hear The Music – Dimmer
[LINK - Smoke CDs]

Tuesday Wonderland – Esbjörn Svensson Trio
[LINK - Amazon]

And that’s it. Those are quantifiably my perennial favourites from the decade. If there are any in there you haven’t heard and would like to check out, you can take this as a fairly solid recommendation from me.